An Ending
by Silva Bramley
Summary: "She told Shikamaru that she didn't think of Sasuke anymore. She told him that she wanted to start a new chapter and be her own person. She told him that Sasuke was nothing but a relic of her past. He didn't believe her. She didn't believe it, either."
1. Chapter 1

Ino tried to avoid the marketplace that day.

She reorganized her shoes and clothes. She reread some medical scrolls. She did some superfluous paperwork for Tsunade-sama. Then, telling herself she was only going to restock her Shinobi supplies, she headed out to the marketplace.

The roads were congested; everyone was trudging out today to see the spectacle. Ino allowed herself to be swept up and carried down the street. She saw Shikamaru and Chouji up ahead, but she avoided being seen by them, embarrassed that she had allowed herself to pass the weapon shop and stay with the crowd.

Like a river, the currents of elbows and closely-pressed-together bodies brought her to the center of the marketplace, where people were filling up the open area and pushing against the barricades.

Ino saw Sasuke, standing higher up than her. He looked around at everyone with a cool indifference, as if he didn't really see them or notice the general buzz of many people talking at once. His eyes passed over her, then wandered back.

His direct gaze made her think about how much he had changed, and how much he had remained the same. His hair and eyes were the same shape and same color. He had grown taller, an obvious change that time brought, and more muscular. Everything about him had matured, but the look in his eyes resembled so much of his younger self, that Ino felt like crying.

She remembered the first time she had seen him, standing with his mom at the entrance of the academy. Her dad was lingering behind, talking with Shikaku on the lawn, leaving her to wait on the doorstep. His mom was making him promise that he would try to be as successful as Itachi. The look on his face was somewhere between envy, determination, and adoration when he declared that he would _surpass_ Itachi.

His mom laughed, but from that moment, Ino had a strange fondness for him. He pulled her like a magnet, always attracting her attention. He was never around without her noticing. She liked the way he set his mouth when aiming. She liked the frustrated crease in his forehead when he didn't quite hit the mark. She liked to look at him.

Ino was still too young to understand the concepts of a crush, but she knew he was special. She tried to befriend him, asking him to play tag with her and giving him gifts of flowers. He would always sniff and say something about how flowers were for girls, and he didn't have time for girls. He had to train. He had to beat Itachi.

Then, Itachi did the unthinkable. He had betrayed Sasuke in the worst way possible and had changed him beyond recognition. The boy who used to take the flowers relunctantly would now turn away without more than a sneer of disdain. He dedicated even more time to training, and soon was the strongest in the class, though never quite as strong as Itachi had been.

Ino struggled to be strong, too. She thought, that if she could be recognized by everyone else, then he'd finally look at her. Then, maybe he'd like what he saw. Soon, she was the second best in the class.

When it came time to pick teams, she hoped that she would be on his team. Ino's parents had met and became close on a series of missions they were assigned together. If watching Sasuke's back and being in constant contact didn't worm her way into his heart, she didn't know what would.

She never had the chance to try it out, because she was placed on a team with Shikamaru and Chouji, and Sakura took her spot on team 7. Ino spent the next year training with her team and watching Sasuke from afar. He never seemed to return her gaze, but he never pushed her off when she hugged him.

With each passing day, she could see her opportunity to ever catch Sasuke's attention slipping away, as he began to notice Sakura more and more each day. It wasn't fair. That was supposed to be her. Sakura wouldn't even receive a second glance if Ino hadn't helped her all those years ago.

The final blow was when Sasuke left, only bothering to say goodbye to Sakura. The other Konoha Shinobi thought she was crying because he was gone, but she thought that maybe her teammates had more of an inkling to the truer reason deep down: that what she'd been working on for years, being noticed by _him_, was all void because of this one action.

She struggled with her identity after he left, wondering who she was. All the decisions she'd made up to that point, the Ino she was, were all based on him somehow. What a wasted life. She hated herself for being so dependent on someone who barely knew her name.

Even with this self-hatred, she continued to subconsciously live her life in a way that would make her appealing to him. She grew her hair out again, she trained harder, she continued to chase after Sakura in medic training.

And, now, he was finally looking at her. Really looking at her, his eyes unfaltering as they met hers. She reached a hand up out of reflex, wanting to touch him despite the hundreds of people who milled between them.

The corners of his lips turned up in semblance of a smile. Ino wanted to shout, "Wait! No!" But, she was too late. The board was removed, and the rope tightened around his neck. She forced her eyes away from his limp body, his life taken in the most dishonorable way for a Shinobi.

Ino knew he was strong enough to escape. Why didn't he? Why did he accept this death? A hand settled across her shoulder, and she looked up to see Shikamaru. He must have spotted her during the execution and crossed through the crowd.

"Come on, Ino. There's nothing left to see here."

This was an ending, Ino thought as she was walking, Shikamaru's hand guiding her through the departing crowd, but, also a beginning.


	2. Chapter 2

Ino stood in front of the monument Naruto and Sakura had erected for Sasuke, a small arrangement of white flowers gripped tightly in her arm. For the past four months, she had struggled with whether she ought to mourn for the fallen Uchiha or not.

It wasn't as if she had been particularly close to him. Everything she knew about him, she had learned from observation or from someone else. Conversations between them had been an effort for the both of them. For her, she tried to get his attention and keep it. For him, it was to avoid her attention and cut short all attempts of small talk.

The wind blew roughly around her, turning her bangs into dangerous razors that attacked her eyes. She pulled an extra hair clip from her pocket and clipped them back, thankful for the distraction. If left unhindered, she would have continued down the road of self-pity. Down that well-worn path of wondering why Sasuke pushed her away when all she wanted to do was love him? Why was he more willing to let Sakura get close? Did he find Ino repulsive?

She asked herself those questions on nearly a daily basis the year after he left. Then, one day, she saw Sakura crying and thought maybe it was better that she didn't know him all that well. Sure, she cried, but her tears weren't nearly as gut-wrenching. She decided that day that she would be _over_ Sasuke.

Besides, Ino's tears were more for herself. Sasuke not returning her affection was a blow to her pride and she had spent so much time making herself into something he'd find attractive. It wasn't love. It couldn't be real. It was baseless.

Yet, despite the countless times she thought her obsessive crush was silly, the fact that she couldn't convince herself to like anyone else led her to believe that maybe her draw towards him was something more substantial. Was it possible to be in love with someone you didn't know well?

Gah! What a waste of a life. When he died, she should have been freed. But, here she was. Standing at his grave marker that shouldn't even exist and thinking of him. He was the lowest of the low. Shinobi scum who betrayed his comrades and tried to kill him. She remembered Sakura slipping in through her window in the middle of the night, sliding next to her in the bed and clamping on to her. That night she had whispered that Sasuke had tried to kill her, and Ino had held her tight until she fell asleep. The next morning, Sakura had disappeared and they never spoke of the incident again.

That had scared Ino. Had Sasuke lost his mind? Why didn't this event turn her away from him? Why did she still care and worry about him, even after hearing the vile things he'd done?

Sasuke didn't care for anything, so why should she care for him? What a waste! She was wasting her life! When Shikamaru had pulled her away after the execution, she thought she was getting a new start at life. But, she dreamed every night about Sasuke looking at her. His eyes. His small smile. She woke every morning sweating and breathing heavily, her arm outstretched as she sought to save him from the fate he had brought upon himself.

She told Shikamaru that she didn't think of Sasuke anymore. She told him that she wanted to start a new chapter of her life and become her own person. She told him that Sasuke was nothing but a relic of her childhood. He didn't believe her. She could tell from the look in his eyes and the feel of his pat. She didn't believe herself either. But, she wanted her words to be true. So she tried.

Ino tried so hard to forget him. She was doing well. For three and a half months, she pushed the thoughts of him away. She tried to condition herself to think of her comrades instead. When she happened upon a spot she had often spotted Sasuke, she would point out why it was a place that Shikamaru might like to watch clouds. When she saw the training grounds Team 7 used to frequent, she would remind herself that she needed to visit Sakura.

She was doing such a good job. Until two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, Hokage-sama had called her into the office and sent her on an escort mission with Chouji and Rock Lee. The majority of the mission was uneventful and boring. The sort of mission she didn't remember in too great detail later on.

That ended, however, once the destination was in sight. There had been a break in the trees, and there it was, about half a mile ahead and down in the valley, when Shinobi began to suddenly rain from the sky. It was an ambush. Her ragtag team struggled with the sheer enormity of the number.

It wasn't long until they were all on their last dregs of chakra. Ino felt the last of her free chakra slip through her fingers as she sent an enemy Shinobi flying at his comrade. It scared her. She wanted to break the seal and gather the escaping chakra close to her.

She felt faint. Trying to avoid using anymore chakra, she deflected a kunai and hit a pressure point, sending a Shinobi crumpling to the ground. She successfully immobilized about ten more, before one used a substitution jutsu and attacked her from behind. Last minute, she formed the seals for her family jutsu and turned his sword into his own chest.

They fell together. Ino dimly heard Chouji scream her name before everything was white. It wasn't the white you saw when you passed out, though. It was more the sort you would see if you stood in a completely white room. It hurt her eyes; she had to slit them like when you stepped outside in the winter and the sun was glinting off the snow.

When her eyes adjusted, she noticed the suggestion of something. She moved closer and tried to figure out what it was. The more she stared at it, the sharper the blur became until she realized that she was standing in front of Sasuke unofficial grave marker. Wait…she was standing? She didn't remember getting back up. Puzzled, she moved closer still until she was directly at the base of the grave.

Blue flower petals began to float all around her, like genjutsu, and she recognized Sasuke's chakra signature. It was strong, like he was standing next to her. She looked wildly around, wondering where he could be. This isn't possible! He's dead. She saw him die with her own eyes. She had confirmed with Sakura that it was really his body before they buried it. There was no way he could…

Ino froze when she spotted a figure walking towards the grave. She relaxed – drooped, really- when she noticed that the figure was distinctly feminine. Why did she feel so disappointed? Sasuke had planned to destroy Konoha. She reminded herself it was a good thing he was dead.

The figure stared at the grave warily before kneeling and placing a bouquet of white flowers at the base. Ino couldn't figure out the identity of the woman and was bothered by how familiar she seemed. It wasn't until the woman murmured Sasuke's name and touched the carving of the fan that she knew who it was. It was her. It was Ino Yamanaka.

Vision Ino's body went rigid and her eyes glazed over. She didn't know what was going on, but she realized that this was a scene Sasuke had left in her brain at some point. Ino didn't know when he could possibly have done it, but she was impressed.

After that, she woke up, sobbing. Chouji was carrying her on his back and stopped at the sound of her tears. She didn't know how to explain, so when Chouji asked her what was wrong, she only shook her head. The rest of the mission was completed with awkward silence.

For two weeks she tried to forget the incident, but her dreams were stronger and more insistent than before. She knew that the vision had meaning. That Sasuke wanted her to visit his memorial for some reason. But, she was frightened. She had no clue what to expect and her personality didn't like that. She liked to be certain. That's why she liked being on a team with Shikamaru. He was always sure.

Finally, she gave into her growing curiosity and followed the vision's prompts. She knelt in front of the grave and carefully settled the flowers at the foot. Not giving herself a chance to chicken out, she quickly murmured his name and ran her fingers across the fan engraving.

Blue genjutsu flower petals rained down around her and her surroundings morphed. The sky turned blood red and the landscape was an inverted black. She looked down at her arms to see that her skin had turned black as well.

"Ino."

She looked up and saw him standing there. He was looking at her again. His attention fully hers once more.

She gasped.

"Sasuke?"

"I was scared, Ino."


End file.
